Weekly Round Up 9th September

Essa Foundation Academies Trust Weekly Round Up 9th September 2022

All at EFA Trust are deeply saddened by the loss of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the Royal Family at this time.

All pages in this edition of the Weekly Round Up will feature a black background in mourning of our late Queen.

Monday 19th September has now been declared as the state funeral and bank holiday, therefore both Essa Academy and Essa Primary will be closed. More information about any additional events will follow once finalised.

Queen Elizabeth II Our flag will remain at half-mast until the day following Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral.

Queen Elizabeth II Assemblies to celebrate her life and reign On Friday, all students gathered together for a special assembly to honour the life of Queen Elizabeth II. A special thanks to Mr Daniel for putting this together, our student leadership team for a lovely reading and to our student body who showed the upmost respect and empathy.

Queen Elizabeth II Bolton Music Service woodwind concert Thank you to the wonderful Bolton Music Service Woodwind Ensemble for an incredible woodwind music concert on Friday. Our Year 7 students were blown away by the music and deeply moved by a very special rendition of our national anthem.

“When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future."

HM Queen Elizabeth II

Welcome back to all We were delighted to welcome all students back to Essa Academy and Essa Primary this week.

Our students have made a wonderful start to the year and have made us very proud.

Both schools have started the year off with some very positive news and events and we look forward to the term ahead.

Essa Academy GCSE Results

Essa Academy celebrate fantastic GCSE results with a 30% increase in 'top' grades Statement from Principal Martin Knowles: Our summer 2022 GCSE results are really pleasing and I'm delighted so many of our students have achieved wonderful grades. The disruption to learning over the past 2 years cannot be underestimated. These wonderful students epitomise resilience and ambition which has enabled them to succeed.

Our results have improved further when compared to 2019, which was the last time formal GCSE exams were conducted.

The number of grade 7, 8 and 9s has increased by over 30%! Our basics measure which incorporates English and Maths has also seen positive increases.

Every student has left Essa Academy this summer with qualifications which I am extremely proud of. I wish to thank our wonderful staff, parents and the local community for their belief and unwavering support.

Well done the class of 2022!

Some stand out performances

Many of our students received superb grades this year and had outstanding personal achievements. Above are just some of the students who achieved exceptional results. Well done to all.

Essa Academy Graduations Last week Essa Academy celebrated students’ achievements from 2021-2022 with our annual graduation and achievement days.

Students wore caps and gowns, graduated from their Essa Experience and received awards for Effort, Standards, Spirit and Achievement. We also selected our highly acclaimed Principal’s award winners for every year group and for the first time we gave reading books as prizes linked to every faculty.

The ceremonies were a wonderful celebration and we have decided that these will continue to take place at the start of each academic year moving forward.

Thank you to all parents and carers who were able to attend and make the events even more special.

Essa Academy Reminders

Essa Primary Reception In Reception, all the children have settled in well into their new classrooms. They have enjoyed exploring their new learning environments; inside and outside. The Reception children have been motivated, inquisitive and enthusiastic about their new learning. We have all made new friends.

Essa Primary Year 1 In Year 1, we have been reading ‘My name is not Refugee’. The children have been learning how to say and write their full names.

They thoroughly enjoyed producing beautiful artwork by writing their names in different coloured oil pastels and watercolour paint.

Essa Primary Year 2 and 3 Year 2 have enjoyed the start of their new book, ‘The Jolly Postman.’ They are excited to see who the postman meets along his journey. We know he delivered a letter from Goldilocks. Zayne enjoyed making some porridge and sharing it with his class.

Year 3 have been reading the book “My name is not refugee” and have explored the character’s feelings in more detail. We used drama, art and wrote diary extracts to empathise with the main character.

Essa Primary Year 5 In year 5 we have been exploring the book “My name is not refugee” through art, geography, RE and drama. It is a book that has created a lot of discussion. Here is some of our amazing art work.

Essa Primary Year 6 In Year 6 we have been exploring our new text, ‘Running Wild’ by Michael Morpurgo. We have used our inference skills to make predictions about our main character and the context of the story using real-life objects, the front cover and blurb.

Sending best wishes to our EFA Trust family.

“Family does not necessarily mean blood relatives, but often a description of community, organisation or nation."

HM Queen Elizabeth II